New Report: Misplaced Highway Spending the Blame for Crumbling Roads and Bridges

WISPIRG

Drivers in Wisconsin pay an extra $281 per year on car repairs due to highways and bridges in disrepair.

A new report released today strongly criticized politicians and policies that favor building new roadways while neglecting existing bridges and roads. The Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG) released the new report, Road Work Ahead, today. The report is available on WISPIRG’s website here.

The report notes that 43 percent of roads in Wisconsin are in less than good condition and an unsettling 1,207 bridges are structurally deficient. An examination of recent spending (2006-2008) of federal transportation funds show that the state has directed far more dollars ($90 million) annually toward building new or wider highways compared to funds directed to fixing bridges ($55 million).

“This report calls into question national and state transportation priorities,” said Bruce Speight, WISPIRG Director. “It is a waste of scarce resources to continue spending billions on new highways while existing roadways need repair.  It’s like adding a guest room on your home when the roof is leaking.”

“Local governments in Wisconsin have been directly impacted by the federal and state emphasis on transportation spending on new construction.  By diverting both transportation funds to other state programs and targeting new construction needs over existing roads, transportation funding for local roads has been limited and has resulted in local governments failing to keep up their roads,” said Rick Stadelman, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Towns Association. “Repair and fixing all existing highways, including a fair share for local needs, should become a priority at the state and federal level.”

The report places the blame on powerful special interests and perverse state and federal policies. It points out that, by and large, states generally award major new construction contracts to outside contractors, many of whom lobby for such projects. Routine maintenance and repairs, by contrast, tend to be performed by in-house staff who lack outside influence. Politicians can be susceptible to these pressures because they garner positive political attention from ribbon cuttings for new projects, and mainly hear complaints about closing roads for repair and maintenance, according to the report.
 
The report also notes that states bend the definition of “maintenance” projects to include road or bridge expansion, further reducing the amount of money available for true maintenance.  For example, in Wisconsin, a project to devote $1.9 billion to repair a 38-mile section of Interstate 94 actually expanded the number of lanes on the road from four to eight. The state is demolishing every overpass bridge along the segment and building new ones to accommodate the new lanes, despite the fact that only one was structurally deficient. As a result, millions of dollars will actually go toward the construction of new infrastructure rather than repair.

“We need to prioritize fixing what we have before building all these new roads. With our budget problems, every dollar needs to be used wisely,” said Robert Bauman, Alderman for the 4th District of Milwaukee, Chair of the Milwaukee Common Council’s Public Works Committee, and Member of the National League of Cities’ Transportation Infrastructure Services Steering Committee.

“Wisconsin should establish strong fix-it-first policies that ensure that no funds are wasted on new projects until we’ve cleared our backlog of needed repair,” said Speight.